I saw this article talking about how the town Jackson MI was going to flush the water mains for iron and sediment. The water is still safe to drink, but could be discolored, and people are recommended to not wash their clothes with it. Since I study water, I was interested in the need to […]

Inspired by my upcoming trip to Italy, my discussion this week looks at sediment in a lagoon in Venice. Venice is a city in Northern Italy that is made of many different islands that are connected by canals and bridges. The Venetian Lagoon is the overall term for the area encompassing Venice. Humans have had […]

Yesterday I visited the Old Croton Aqueduct with my club (Soil and Water Conservation Society).  We were able to walk into the 41 mile aqueduct built in the 1800’s, and see how it worked, and learn some of the history behind it. It was New York Cities first clean source of water (after they polluted […]

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_6CGtXcavSuo/S-wH-dT28nI/AAAAAAAAAS0/WiTeWCZFDOQ/s1600/gleyed+soil.JPG) The image above is an example of gleying in soil. What is gleying? It is when low oxygen soil conditions (such as a high water table) cause iron and manganese to reduce, and make the soil gray. There are some cases where plants grow in soils that have low oxygen, and the roots that go […]

I learned ( In my Natural Resources of China class) that much of the lowlands of China are a delta formed by the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in China. This is where they do much of their agriculture, because most everywhere else in  the country is too mountainous. The Yellow River Delta is a river […]

https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse/#v=-43.53499,171.73082,10.818,latLng&t=0.00 After being inspired be a class discussion on rivers, and Google Earth Engine, I decided to look at rivers in New Zealand, and make a timelapse of its changes over time. I looked at the Rakaia River, which seems to be both meandering, and braided in parts. I think this helps exemplify that identify […]

I learned about this mixture in my soils class last week, called plinthite. I am not sure whether or not it is considered a rock, or soil. It is a mixture of clay, quartz and other minerals that hardens when it gets wet, supposedly irreversibly hard. I find this rather interesting, because I would think […]

http://www.equipmentworld.com/portland-begins-cleaning-sand-and-gravel-off-roadways-after-recent-snow-storm/ This link brings you to an article about the Portland Bureau of Transportation, and how they use sand and gravel to provide traction for cars on the road, and the cleanup afterward. While cleaning up the sand and gravel may seem tedious, I believe that it is a much better alternative than an excessive […]

https://phys.org/news/2017-01-invasive-sedge-dunes-native-grass.html I saw this article about invasive species being better at protecting a dune from erosion than native species, and it got me to thinking. When we were outside Wilbur Cross we talked about two different types of dunes, barchan dunes, and parabolic dunes. Barchan dunes move with the limbs first, while parabolic dunes move […]

My parents just got back from a trip to Arizona, and the Grand Canyon. They brought me back this stone candle holder. I find the different layers incredibly interesting, but I’m wondering what all the dark lines between the different sections/top could be-they are slight ridges that stick out of the side of the holder. […]

http://www.sltrib.com/home/4267539-155/dam-project-fills-american-fork-with http://www.heraldextra.com/news/local/north/american-fork/monitoring-clean-up-plan-for-tibble-fork-sediment-spill-still/article_20f70fe9-f9b9-59ea-90ca-89cc55c750ac.html These are links to articles that talk about a sediment spill in August 2016 that killed fish in the American Fork River. The sediment (which was accidentally spilled) was laden with heavy metals, and was part of a dam rehabilitation project upstream. As the fine grain sediment settled, in some places it made […]